Kentucky Taxidermist Takes a Sizable Deer of His Own – North American Whitetail

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As a taxidermist, Skyler Hurt is like this outdoor writer, surrounded by other folks’ giant bucks, and always hoping to get one of his own! Skyler runs Hurts Taxidermy and Outdoors in Kentucky. He was finishing up mounts from the 2025 season in late August and dreaming about the monster whitetail which he had seen near his house.
The buck with the over-sized rack had been around all summer and Skyler and his family had seen him many times. It was coming to his bait station regularly now, and Skyler felt like the upcoming archery season would be his best opportunity to tag him.
“I was becoming obsessed with this deer which I called MegaGiant”, he says. “And willing to do whatever it was going to take to get him!”
And one of those things was boarding his Silver Labrador, which kept getting into the bait pile and rolling around… Ruger spent 15 days in boarding so that he wouldn’t run the target buck off. That my friends are serious! There were many ups and downs in the run up to the hunt. Skyler set up a blind near the bait pile, and when the buck came in and saw it the first time he ran off.
“Then he was back the next day eating just a few yards away”, Skyler begins. “He was in and out a lot after that, and each time I worried he might not come back!”
Opening day finally arrived, and Skyler recruited his buddy, Trenton, to come along to record the hunt and assist with opening windows. “Inside the blind was like a sauna with the windows closed, but I was very concerned about the buck smelling us”, he adds. “I had seen an air cooler unit on Drury Outdoors, and fabbed one up, but it was not making a lot of difference!” Before long, the windows fogged up, and when Trenton opened one the buck was right there on the bait. He spooked but only ran a few feet, then stopped and stared at the blind.
“Because he was there, we stayed in the blind really late that night before leaving, then returned at 2:30 AM”, Skyler continues. “Sunday was a really long day with no action, and we spent the whole night in the blind that night.”
“It was really miserable, but I was determined to kill and figured going in and out would surely spook him if we kept it up.”
The heat got so bad on Monday, Skyler had to take a break. The buck took advantage of the absence and showed up mornings and evenings over the next three days. By Thursday, Skyler was ready to do battle again, climbing into the blind ready to stay another night, if needed. That afternoon was a blank. He spotted his target well out of range early the next morning then conceded and left the blind.
“I had put in over 40 hours hunting and was burned out”, he admits. “I told another friend, Nick, that I couldn’t go again, especially alone, and he said he would do it with me.”
So, the pair slipped back into the blind at 5 PM on Labor Day, ready to seal the deal!
An hour and half later, two does appeared, followed by a small 8-point that had been with MegaGiant the day before. Incredibly, when the big deer showed up a few minutes later, Skyler said, “That’s not him!” Nick looked again and said, “THAT IS HIM!” 
MegaGiant took his last few steps and caught a broadhead squarely in the vitals a minute later. The long hunt torturous ended abruptly, but the big deer had run out of sight, so the decision was made to go call a drone to help with recovery.
That flight was short, finding the 5-½-year-old buck dead just a few yards from the blind! The huge bodied deer weighed 255 pounds and its trophy rack scores 196 ½ inches, a great reward for the determined hunter!
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